Make Your Own Kecap Manis (Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce)

Indonesian sweet soy sauce aka kecap manis is one of my most used sauces besides soy sauce and oyster sauce. These 3 sauces are a staple in my everyday Asian dishes. Stir fry, noodles, fried rice…and believe it or not, my own concoction of Chinese stew (may share in another time).

So…what’s the difference between soy sauce and kecap manis?

The obvious difference is soy sauce (or light soy sauce) is salty and with a consistency of water; whereas kecap manis is sweeter (manis means sweet in Malay/Indonesian) and has the consistency resembling maple syrup. I use light soy sauce in replacement of salt and kecap manis for color and the sweetness, of course. I like to use these two sauces together to balance the savouriness and sweetness in my Asian dishes.

I’m aware not everyone has a bottle of kecap manis in their kitchens and may not feel like getting a whole bottle for an one-off recipe; or you simply want the satisfaction of making sauces at home.

Either way, I thought you may be interested to make this at home since it’s neither a difficult nor an expensive exercise. Enjoy!

Make Your Own Kecap Manis (Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce)

(I tweaked the quantity of sugar from the recipe found on The Peach Kitchen, as I like it a little thicker and more caramelly)

What you need:-

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup + 1/8 cup (i.e one half of a quarter cup) brown sugar

Instead of brown sugar, The Perfect Pantry has suggested palm sugar which I thought to be brilliant also.

Let’s get started:-

(1) In small pot, add brown sugar and soy sauce. (2) Boil the sauce over low to medium flame until thickens resembling maple syrup. If the mixture starts to boil vigorously and looks like it is going to overboil, leave the pot away from the flame until the boiling has calm down and continue to boil over low heat. You have to keep a watchful eye while the mixture is cooking to avoid overboiling. As the mixture cools down, it will further thicken.

Boil the sauce over low to medium flame until thickens resembling maple syrup. If the mixture starts to boil vigorously and looks like it is going to overboil, leave the pot away from the flame until the boiling has calm down and continue to boil over low heat. You have to keep a watchful eye while the mixture is cooking to avoid overboiling. As the mixture cools down, it will further thicken.

I made a lamb stirfry with it and it was delicious! I added a bit of ginger and garlic too, but that’s all. Sorry, I meant to say that it tastes a lot saltier than the ABC sauce, but it was perfect in the stirfry. Thanks Emily!

Phew.. i was like “did abby eat it straight or something?” hehe.. I agree it was saltier than abc sauce so one gotta adjust the salt when use the homemade version. Ur lamb stir fry sounds delicious.. i must try the lamb stir fry with kecap manis. 🙂 have a great weekend!

I can eat Gluten anymore and all the Kecap Manis I have found contains gluten which is frustrating as a few of my favourite recipes have Kecap manis and I really like it, so thank you! I look forward to making it. How long does it keep for?

Hi katrina
I normally make a small batch at a time like a cup or so and the longest i have kept for is 2 weeks in the fridge. Since it made of juz soy sauce and brown sugar i suspect i can go even longer as long it does not look like there is mould or taste funny.

There are several brands of gluten free soy sauce on the market, depending on the country you live in. Kikkoman, Ayam, Masterfoods all make a gluten free soy sauce. These are all available in Australia. Tamari is also a gluten free soy sauce.

Instead of brown sugar or palm sugar i have used what is known as JAGGERY in India, which is in a way unrefined sugar and made from sugar cane.
it does resemble palm sugar somewhat but is not as sweet. The results depend on how much Jaggery is added, which in turn depends on how sweet you want it to be. I think it makes a really good substitute. I would like to get some original IKAN BILIS so that I can then match the taste.
Thank you for the recipes

I have just returned from Bali and am so excited that making kecap manis is so easy. Thanks for the website. I also can’t eat gluten but in the healthfood aisle of the supermarket you can gluten free soy sauce which is not as salty. J

I must admit I have not tried with honey. The function of brown sugar is to provide the caramel & thick consistency, so in this sense honey could work. However may I suggest you try with flavourless honey as some types of honey can taste quite floral. I hope this helps! 🙂

Growing up in the Netherlands Kecap Manis was a staple in the fridge, now living in the US I used to order it online until making my own. I use low sodium and add some ginger and koriander through mine, you can also spice it up a little using chili pepper paste. Great for making Babi Ketjap

im making a dish that requires this sauce, and i found ur recipe very helpful! however, theres one problem. I made it and set it aside to use for the dish later. now, as i check it, i see that it has become so thick that it is no longer sauce! LOL. What should I do? add more soy sauce?

Maybe just add a tsp of soy sauce and warm it for a couple of seconds in microwave. From my personal experience as the surrounding temperature drops the sauce.becomes very thick (even for the commercial ones) and the during summer time the sauce is more liquid. I hope this helps.

With kecap, I’ve learn my ups and downs, using any soy sauce, low-sodium. or Kikkoman, it goes back to your taste buds, and how you use it. most will say its too salty, or most will say its too sweet. Its all by going how much use it or how much spices your adding to your dish. umami

Good article – but please remove your suggestion that palm sugar is a ‘brilliant’ alternative – palm sugar is a horrible substance – while it may taste good, it is easy to find alternatives and it also ruins the environment for the orangutans and is killing their population off – its a well known issue.

Thankfully there are a lot of sustainable coconut sugar products available now that take care in avoiding orangutan habitats while supporting indigenous farming initiatives in indonesia. I just made some with coconut sugar and it was delicious!

I will try this recipe shortly!! But as I arrived at your page to find sustainable alternatives to the (evil) palm sugar, I won’t be using palm sugar!!!
It’s just great I can make this sauce with out contributing to the destruction of any Orangutans habitat or their lives. 🙂

I applaud commenters for doing what they can to save orangutan habitat, but palm sugar is not made from the same types of palm trees that palm oil is made from, they are made from entirely different species. If you’re still worried, just make sure it’s coconut or date, or from countries where orangutans don’t live.

Thanks so much Emily! And everyone else too. This is what I love about the internet when it works. In fact the internet works, I believe MAINLY because people take the time and sometimes also money to contribute from their personal experience and expertise. People also do it for money, of course, but not anywhere near the majority. The internet really. belongs to all of us.

Hi Emily, thank you for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it! I had seen another recipe elsewhere, can’t remember where as it was sometime ago and it had a stalk of lemongrass in it. What do you think? Perhaps lemongrass and some ginger-garlic? Martin (earlier post) had mentioned coriander. Some coriander leaves too? Then we could strain the mixture? Or too many flavours?

Thank you for your interest in the recipe. Personally, I prefer to keep the ingredients for kecap manis as basic as possible. For one, I used it in a many of my dishes so having an ingredient like lemongrass may limit the dish you can add it to. Secondly, depending how much you want to set aside for usage later, adding fresh ingredients like garlic, ginger, coriander etc may shorten the storage life. I understand they would be well cooked through but I am just a little paranoid when it comes to stuff like that. However should you wish to add either of this ingredients, infused them with the soy sauce first (with a little extra water to prevent the soy sauce from burning) and strained before adding the brown sugar. This is because the finish result likened to thick caramel and this consistency may make it challenging to strain. I hope this helps, Anjali!

So glad to have found this recipe and it works a treat! I couldn’t find Kecap Manis in my local stores so googled to see if I could make it myself and came across this easy and tasty recipe. Five star recipe ????? Thank you!

Hi! I made this last night to use for mehgoreng. It was delicious! My only issue is that the kecap manis solidifies when left in open air then I have to reheat it again before using. Any suggestions to avoid it? Thank you!

My attempt ending up a light brown color with a little burnt smell so I guess I boiled it too long? I left it in the pan to come read what I did wrong and when I went back its almost like taffy, so sticky and stiff. Any suggestions?

Dear Emily: Your website (and your recipe for kecap manis) was mentioned in the comments to an October 30, 2016 New York Times recipe [http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018376-singaporean-braised-duck ]. It’s been a pleasure exploring your food blog. I look forward to visiting it often. Regards from Richard in Cambridge (MA).

A dutch company named ConiMex made the best Ketjap Manis I ever tasted, but they’ve changed it in the past few years and it’s not as good. So I’m trying to duplicate the original by mixing dark molasses with low sodium soy sauce and oyster sauce and it’s close but it’s not exact. I lived in Holland for years and miss that sauce much. My letters to the Co. have been ignored of course cause they don’t want to admit that they’ve cheapened the recipe. I’m wondering if you might have heard of this Co. or if you can help me improve my recipe. Maybe the Co. will talk to you. Oh, I love your website. I do still have a small amount of the original.

I was experimenting with a few Indonesian recipes lately, and since I live in a small space and figured kecap manis should be reasonable to make, when I searched it on Google, Fuss Free came up near the top!

To which I smack my forehead, like, duh! Already bookmarked for another recipe!

Just want to say thanks for a beautiful, sensible, food blog 🙂

And I boiled my kecap manis too long and almost made soy sauce caramel, hahaha!

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